Abstract:

Component systems comprise components linked in various ways. We illustrate an approach to expressing and selecting appropriate semantics for components, using as a starting point UML class diagrams. Like most diagrammatic notations, UML does not have a fixed interpretation. We present a meta-modular framework for the combined use of UML and Z, based on two levels. At the meta-level, we express modular semantic interpretation of UML diagrams by using templates and generics. At the instantiation-level, UML models are translated into Z specifications by instantiating the corresponding meta-level semantic interpretations. This allows the definition of semantic interpretations that are precise and unambiguous in a modular fashion, allowing tailoring of semantic interpretations by plugging-in or plugging-out modules representing some semantic aspect, and enhancing the readability, conciseness and abstraction of the resulting Z specification.

@inproceedings(SS-FACS03,
  author = "Nuno Am\'{a}lio and Susan Stepney and Fiona Polack",
  title = "Modular {UML} Semantics: 
           Interpretations in {Z} Based on Templates and Generics",
  crossref = "FACS03"
)

@proceedings(FACS03,
  title = "FACS'03 Workshop on Formal Aspects of Component Software, 
           Pisa, Italy, September 2003",
  booktitle = "FACS'03 Workshop on Formal Aspects of Component Software, 
               Pisa, Italy, September 2003",
  editor = "Hung Dang Van and Zhiming Liu",
  series = "UNU/IIST Technical Report",
  volume = 284,
  year = 2003
)